Gaining From A Loss
by DeathByMushrooms
Summary: Remus goes to collect Harry for the funeral of [the one who died in Order of the Phoenix] ######, but learns there is something to be gained.


A/N: I don't really think he's dead...(email me, if you REALLY want to know what I think, and have convinced several others to think)...but here it is.  
  
*~LT. Dan~*  
  
I looked down at the ground below me. The Disillusionment Charm I had cast on my broom made it safe to fly on a cloudless day such as this one. I saw the street I was looking for and dove straight down toward it, making sure I didn't land to hard or the Muggle neighbors would hear me. I took my broom to the side of the house to a huge Beech tree, where there were no neighbors to stare as I removed my spell. I did so quickly, and went back around to the front of the house, stowing my broom carefully in the hedges lacing around the place. I cautiously knocked on the door, unsure of what I would see. The way Harry had described the residents of this house to me, I wasn't sure I wanted to know what was beyond the door.  
  
Presently a huge boy of around sixteen opened the door. "Who're you?" he said disdainfully, staring at my Wizard's robes.  
  
"I'm here to collect Harry Potter. Is this his residence?" I asked casually, glancing around the front room quickly. I didn't see anyone.  
  
"I don't know a 'Harry Potter'," the beefy boy said, moving to slam the door in my face.   
  
I stuck my hand out quickly and caught it. "Yes you do," I said calmly, taking my free hand and sliding out my wand. Of course, I wouldn't do anything to the boy, but I had to show him that I was serious about my business.  
  
The boy looked at my wand in horror. "He's - he's upstairs...in his room," he stammered, opening the door wider as I took my hand down and slid my wand back into my robes.  
  
Presently an older man's voice sounded from the room beyond the one I was in. "What's taking so long in there, Dudley?" it said gruffly.  
  
I threw a sharp look at the boy called Dudley and moved toward the left side of the room where I saw a flight of stairs.  
  
"N-nothing," Dudley said, not taking his eyes off of me. He waddled into the room where the voice had come from, looking over his shoulder at least a dozen times before he opened the door.  
  
I climbed the stairs without making a noise and found myself in a hallway with four rooms and a bathroom. I found Harry's room at the end across the hallway from the largest room on the floor. I poked my head inside the cracked door.   
  
It was worse looking than it had been the previous summer. He was clearly not cleaning up after himself. There were clothes, books, Quidditch supplies, and even food dishes sprawled all over the floor. Hedwig's cage was filthier than ever, and what I could see of the bed wasn't made up.  
  
"Harry?" I asked cautiously, opening the door wider.  
  
"Who's that?" came Harry's voice from the far left corner of the room.  
  
I stepped into the room upon hearing him acknowledge I was there. "Hi," I managed to say feebly. He was laying on his bed writing something on a piece of parchment. When he saw me, he quickly put it away.  
  
"Professor Lupin?" he said, blinking awkwardly at me. "How'd you...?"  
  
I smiled gently and sat down on the bed next to him. "Remus...or even Moony...is just fine, Harry," I said, casting my eyes on the parchment.  
  
Harry's cheeks tinged. "It's a...erm...a letter to...er...someone," he said quietly, shoving the parchment farther away from me.  
  
"Oh. Okay," I said, sure it was a letter to a certain someone Harry couldn't get enough of.  
  
"Right. What're you doing here?" he said quietly.  
  
"I've come to take you to Sirius' funeral, Harry," I said in an even quieter monotone. It was hard to accept the fact that Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, had murdered him.  
  
"Oh," he said shortly. The largest frown I'd ever seen occupy his young face was there now.  
  
"Then you're coming home with me," I added, not particularly wanting to see him so dismal.  
  
"I'm what?" he said, his spirits seeming to have lifted a great deal. "I'm leaving the Dursleys? For good?"  
  
I nodded with a thin smile. "Yes. You can live with me, if you'd like?"  
  
Harry agreed eagerly, then his face drooped once more. "Dumbledore said I had to stay with the Dursleys, though."  
  
I smiled again. "Yes, well, that's only because they're your relatives and you're protected through their blood."  
  
"But if I'm with you, then I won't be protected," he said, looking at me with a confused look on his face.  
  
"Yes, you will. I believe Sirius told you how all pureblooded families are related?" I said seriously, frowning at the mention of his name.  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"Your father was a pureblood, Harry. And so was mine."  
  
"So we're related?" he asked slowly.  
  
"Yes," I said, sliding off his bed. "Are you ready?" I asked glancing at his highly untidy room.  
  
"Er--" he said, following my gaze and jumping off the bed as well.  
  
I smiled slightly, took out my wand, and pointed my wand at Hedwig's cage. "/i," I said clearly, and the cage was cleaned. "/i!" I yelled, waving my wand around the room. His things flew into his trunk, which had opened itself.  
  
"Thanks," he said, grabbing one end of the trunk.  
  
"Don't bother," I muttered. "iLocomoter trunk/i!" his trunk immediately lifted a few inches off the ground. I flicked my wand to the front of the room, where it flew without a sound, still levitating. "Is that everything?"  
  
Harry looked around his room. "My broom," he said, stepping over an empty soup dish and grabbing his Firebolt off the back wall. "And this..." he murmured, grabbing the piece of parchment that hadn't zoomed into the trunk along with the quill and ink next to it. He looked up at me.  
  
"Right," I said, pointing my wand at his trunk as Harry stuffed the parchment into his back pocket, grabbed his broom and Hedwig's cage, and followed me out the door. We crept down the stairs, and, somehow, got past the Dursleys.  
  
"What about them?" Harry asked, nodding at the closed door that Dudley had gone into.  
  
"Dumbledore already told them I was to take you this summer. They just didn't expect it to be two days into your holiday, is all," I said with a grin.  
  
I pulled my broom out of the hedges when we were outside. And something occurred to me. We had both lost Sirius, but because of that, we were gaining something more. We were gaining a bond that only a father and son could have. We were gaining each other.  
  
/i  
  
A/N: Please review. Thanks.  
  
*~LT. Dan~* 


End file.
